What is a band Aide Poultice?Recently my adult son came home for a visit. He asked me to look at a blackhead on his back. I was taken aback how large it was. It was black and had a cyst under it. My first thought was, this was something to be excised by a dermatologist. It was painful. It had no head and was level with the skin. I couldn’t believe it was a year old.

I decided we would do a band aid poultice. I took a band aide and applied quite a bit of this Green Tea Spot treatment to the middle of the band aide and stuck it over the cyst. 18 hours later as I removed the band aide we were amazed to find a head had formed. It was still too painful to pop. So I applied another Green Tea band aide. 8 hours later, we were amazed to find it had opened up and was draining. Pain was gone. He scrubbed it with Clear & Smooth and left it open. Within a few days it was just about healed.

Instead of spending a $150 at a Dermatologist, a few cents worth of Green Tea Spot Treatment saved the day.

Since 1999 we have been producing unique, EFFECTIVE acne products. We see so many new customers come to us maxed out on spot treatments. Due to this addiction, some can take several weeks for us to help them with our acne scrubs. So our opinion of spot treatments has always been ‘NO WAY, NO HOW!’

This is mainly because almost all spot treatments use acids and/or benzoyl peroxide as the active ingredient. Even so called natural spot treatments are very acidic. Long term contact tends to work for a while but eventually creates a REBOUND effect. Making the skin worse and worse. Very possibly one of the reasons so many adults have acne today. Benzoyl peroxide, we believe, should never be left on the skin for an extended period of time. 2 of our products use Benzoyl Peroxide but only stays on the skin for a short while. And then is completely removed.

Lately we’ve been studying the therapeutic uses of essential oils. We’ve always used them to make our products smell nice. But there is real evidence they also can be used to help the skin to become healthy. And they don’t seem to exhibit this rebound effect.

It’s tricky though. Often essential oils are watered down and mislabeled. We have to buy only from trusted sources. Plus they never should be used full strength. So finding the right percentage can be difficult.

In the testing we’ve done, we have seen great results using this as a supplement to our acne treatments and also by itself.

We had a test batch and made up a few samples for our regular customers to test before it was released. Here’s one note that came in.

Dear clearandsmooth,

I got your free sample of green tea and I used it twice. I absolutely love it. I looked on your Web site for it and I can’t find it. will you be selling it anytime soon?

– goodmemories1982

What are essential Oils? What is the difference between essential oils and other vegetable oils? Oils like coconut, olive and argan oils are what’s known as carrier oils. They are made by squeezing the oil from seeds. They are mother natures little miracle for our skin. Essential Oils are made by steam distilling the fragrant portion of the plant. Often the flowers, but sometimes the bark or even the roots. They are also miracles, that aren’t being used enough or correctly.

Let’s talk about the ACTIVE ingredients

Green Tea Powdered Extract: (Camellia Sinensis) We are not big fans of most liquid green tree extracts on the market. Mainly because they have so many ‘other’ ingredients. So using a powdered finely ground green tea extract appealed to us. We all know how beneficial Green Tea is for the body. But we didn’t know how well this would absorb. At well over 2%, we were surprised to find when applied in a thin layer, this powdered extract totally absorbs into the skin. And when applied thicker, seems to absorb surface skin oils. I just love how this lotion feels.

Grapefruit Essential Oil: (Citrus Paradisi) has been shown to have great ‘anti-acne potential’. Grapefruit has antiseptic and disinfectant properties. The essential Oil of the Grapefruit is rich in antioxidants. Which helps the skin to be healthy. The antiviral and antimicrobial properties of grapefruit essential oil make it a good disinfectant. It not only protects the body from new infections but also eliminates the infections which are already there. The antiseptic properties of grapefruit essential oil make it perfect for application on bruises, wounds, cuts, and acne to protect them from microbial infections. Furthermore, as an antiseptic, it prevents wounds from developing tetanus or from becoming septic.

Rosemary Cineole Essential Oil: (Rosmarinus officinalis). Also has antibacterial properties. As well as many studies showing benefits for a healthy skin.

Copaiba Essential Oil: (Copaifera officinalis) (pronounced “Ko-pah-ee-bah”) The Copaiba Balsam Resin is extracted from the wild growing trees. They are found mainly in the South American rain forests – particularly Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela. The resin is sustainably harvested by tapping or drilling holes into the trunk of the tree. Without damaging the trees. In this way it is much like how rubber trees are tapped. This Essential Oil is popular in South America for many skin ailments.

Helichrysum Rambiazina Essential Oil: (Helichrysum Gymnocephalum). This Essential Oil comes from Madagascar. It has incredible healing properties. Although not as highly regarded as it’s relative: Italicum. We believe this has been overlooked as an excellent substitute. Italicum is $120 an ounce. And with some of these high priced essential oils it is hard to verify they are what they say they are.

Hops Essential Oil: (Humulus lupulus)This is the same hops that beer is made from. Except a very precious essential oil is derived from the flowers. At $1200 a pound we’re glad only a small amount is necessary to get benefits for the skin.

Thyme Thymol Essential Oil: (Thymus vulgaris) Has both antiseptic and antifungal properties. We find it beautiful that natural substances can help us help our bodies to a healthy state without drugs.

Balance of ingredients:

Reverse Osmosis purified water: virtually all skin care products ‘say’ they use purified water. But the real deal is reverse osmosis purified water. This mean ZERO contaminants which means the starting point is pure. It’s expensive to do (goes through 5 filters, which have to be changed often), but it is the only water we use. We use the waste water from this purifying process to water our flowers and landscaping. So there is no waste. Don’t some products use distilled water? Yes but distilled water is environmentally expensive to make (heat is used to boil the dirty water and stream is collected). The problem we have with distilled water is it has a lower pH due to the extra ions added during the process. We prefer to work with pH neutral water. To me there is no more perfect water than R-O water. I remember the 1st time we made soap with it. As we poured the soap is was so creamy! It looked like home made ice cream right before it gets solid. It’s one of our special secrets to how good our products are. Again, no one does this.

Camellia Seed Oil or Tea Seed Oil: (Camellia sinensis) Green, black, white and oolong tea leaves are harvested from Camellia oleifera and sometimes Camellia sinensis. These species are also popularly known as the Tea Plant. Like the teas made from these species, Camellia Oil exhibits exceptional antioxidant activity. Although Camellia Oil is often referred to as Tea Oil or Tea Seed Oil, it should not be confused with the essential oil of Tea Tree. This is a new oil for us. We like that it is fast absorbing. Camellia Oil is a rich source of other omega 3,6 and 9 fatty acids plus Vitamin E and polyphenols. In addition to being a noteworthy although very expensive cooking oil, cold pressed Camellia Oil is a nutritive cosmeceutical oil that is said to be the ancient beauty secret of the geishas. At almost $100 a gallon, this is an expensive precious carrier oil.

We Infuse these healing herbs into the Reverse Osmosis water we use to make this product.

Dong Quai (Angelica Polymorpha

Sinensis),

Gum Guggal (Commiphora mukul),

Olive Leaf (Olea europaea),

Burdock Root (Arctium Lappa),

Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale),

Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza Glabra),

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense),

Neem Leaf (Azadirachta indica),

Vitex Berries (Agnus Castus)

Emulsifying wax: This is a vegetable wax that is used to combine the oils and water.

Stearic acid: is not an acid, but another vegetable wax. Adds creaminess.

Germall Plus (4/10’s of 1%) (diazolidinyl Urea, 3-Iodo-2-propylbutylcarbarmate) (a vegetable derived preservative to keep our product fresh) only needs 4/10’s of one percent to keep our product safe. Look before you ask, no totally natural preservative really protects products from bacteria. We don’t like using Parabens. and since we pH balance our moisturizers we are limited in our choice of preservatives. What’s great about this one is so little is needed to afford protection.

FYI: Heat is the enemy of high end oils. Excess heat destroys their delicate properties. We are able to use these kind of precious ingredients because of our methods treat our ingredients so delicately. Almost all moisturizers are made by a few big manufacturers. Big manufacturers make their products in huge batches (100’s of thousands of jars at a time) and use high heat to speed production. We are completely different. All products are made in small batches of a few hundred jars at a time. We carefully control temperatures so precise the oils never go above 140 degrees F. And the mixing takes place at around 126 degrees F. Although with all these expensive essential oils, we typically wait until the temperature drops to around 100 degrees F, to add them in. We use precise scales and spreadsheets to insure batches are made exactly as planned. This is an artisan process. Almost no one is doing this. Plus everything is made and shipped fresh.

When we first started offering skin care products in 1999, it was in response to requests for a well made moisturizer, with high end ingredients that was pH neutral and freshly made. At the time no one was doing this. As far as I know, we still are the only ones doing it. Most skin care products you buy today were made years ago.

Every oil and butter we work with has different properties. And combining them will also change how they perform. The possibilities are endless. Our goal is mainly just to solve skin issues and in so doing earn your continued business.

So why are we different?

We decided a long time ago, not to go big. Not to sell out. Our business model was the very best ingredients, fresh made and shipped direct to our customers. No Retail stores to get in the way. Or tell us what to do. We are not perfect. We make mistakes. We are working with 100’s of precious ingredients that make producing products with them difficult. If our products aren’t good enough, then we keep improving them until they are good enough. We listen to our customers and respond to their requests and suggestions. Our only boss is our customers. Our guarantee comes with no time limit.

Best if used within one year of receipt. I’ll bet no skin care product you have bought from a store was made within the last year. Most of the products were made years ago. We find we can better control our quality if we make products as they are used. Fresh just makes for better skin care products. Our families all use our products. We only sell what we would use.

pH neutral: And why is this important? Although we use ingredients that have an acid pH, the finished moisturizer is pH neutral, like all of our moisturizers. We depart from the mainstream here. We believe the skin is actually stressed by acids. Virtually all moisturizers on the market are acid. We wondered why? If acids are so good for the skin as these products claim, why does it feel so good to take a swim in the ocean? Ocean water pH is very much the opposite of acid. Slightly alkaline. Why is it recommended to keep swimming pool water slightly alkaline? There is a whole line of thinking now that promotes alkalines. We believe the skin and all of nature loves alkaline and hates acids. If the ocean were to all of a sudden become slightly acid, mostly it would be a dead body of water. Forget this nonsense of the ‘acid mantle’. Our bodies when healthy, are pH neutral to slightly alkaline.

No animal ingredients or testing EVER! We also get assurances from our suppliers that all of our raw ingredients are not animal derived or any animal testing done there either.

Most skin care products you buy to use today, were made in large factories years ago and have been in storage. Everything we ship was made in small batches within a few weeks of shipping. Fresh matters! Quality ingredients matter!

Most of our ingredients are as close to natural as possible. We avoid overly processed ingredients. Processing means heat and that destroys the goodness in these precious ingredients we use.

We also include a free 1/2 bar of our Natural shea butter non-drying soap with each jar. This Natural soap has to be tried to be believed. It is nothing short of wonderful.

This is magic in a bottle. You will not regret it. Takes the inflammation down almost immediately without stripping your skin of its natural oils. You can feel how natural this stuff is too. I leave it on for 30 min and then apply the mask on after if it's something I'm trying to get rid of quickly. WORKS LIKE GREEN GORGEOUS MAGIC

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Smells good, dries up acne spots fast!

February 19, 2020

Reviewer:
Beth M from Denver, CO

I love how you only need to use a tiny bit of this product. I use it every time I get an acne spot - which is not very often thanks to their Kick Ass acne wash. It smells SO GOOD, my husband loves when I have some on and he smells it. It's not suitable for wearing under makeup, that is my only qualm, but I am happy enough applying it to acne at bedtime, and it's usually dried up enough by morning that I'm not concerned.

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Works Wonders

October 25, 2019

Reviewer:
Teddy from Massachusetts

I've been using this product for several months now. I find the scent to be intoxicating and refreshing. The tea tree oil really shines through. It leaves your skin feeling soft and all you need is a thin layer which makes the jar last quite some time. I use this in conjunction with the acne treatment face wash and herbal toner and am happy with the results. Which only seem to keep improving.

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Amazing spot treatment

October 25, 2019

Reviewer:
Rochelle from Alberta

This spot treatment is amazing! I get really sore pimples that come from deep under my skin. This spot treatment reduces the size and severity of my acne overnight!

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Awesome Spot Treatment

September 26, 2019

Reviewer:
Alison from Texas

Definitely my go-to spot treatment when I have a breakout. I put it on at night and by the next morning the redness/irritation is gone and the pimple is already healing. Way better than anything you can find at the drugstore.